Brussels, 02/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) announced that the number of asylum seekers in industrial countries reached its lowest level for 16 years in 2004. In 38 of the industrialised countries examined by the HCR, 368 000 requests were made in 2004, 282 000 of them in the European Union. In 2004, the number of requests fell sharply by 19% in the European Union, by 26% in North America and by 28% in Australia and New Zealand. "This really should reduce the pressure by politicians, media and the public to make asylum systems more and more restrictive to the point where many genuine refugees have enormous difficulty getting access to Europe, or getting recognized once they are there," said Raymond Hall, Director of UNHCR's Europe Bureau.
Nevertheless, not all Member States are affected by this fall. Pressure increased in certain of the new Member States, which practically had no requests to process a few years ago. Requests doubled in Cyprus and Malta over a period of twelve months. Malta received 1230 asylum requests in 2004 as opposed to 570 in 2003 and 10 in 1988. 9860 requests were made in Cyprus last year as opposed to 4410 2003 and 110 in 1995. Requests also rose in Slovakia (11 350 in 2004, 10 360 in 2003) and in Poland (8080 in 2004, 6910 in 2003).
France received the most requests in asylum requests in 2004, with 61 600 requests, 2000 more than in 2003. The USA followed with 52 400 requests, then the United Kingdom (40 200). With 35 600 requests in Germany the country is in fourth place, whereas it was at the head of the list for 13 of the last 20 years, underlined the HCR.
Asylum seekers in 2004 were predominantly Russian (30 100 demands, mainly Chechens), Serbia-and-Montenegro (22 300 requests), Chinese (19 700), and Turkish (16 200). The number of Afghan asylum seekers fell sharply by 83 % over the last three years from 50 000 in 2001 to 8800 in 2004. The number of Iraqi asylum seekers has fallen by 80% since 2002, despite a rise in the second half of 2004.
The Spokesperson for European Commissioner Franco Frattini said that the fall in the number of asylum seers “did not indicate” whether the EU had succeeded or not in EU asylum policy. Developing countries continue to receive the overwhelming majority of asylum seekers in the world. Mr Frattini's spokesperson highlighted the aid projects in countries from regions where asylum seekers were leaving from. The European Commission is expected to present these projects this summer.